Midnight Bleeds
by NicoleBuddy
Summary: A year and a half has passed since Blue Noon. Dess's biological father, a police chief in Forks, Washington, provides her the perfect excuse to head to the west coast for her senior year to find and train Midnighters. But complications arise when her younger half-sister arrives in the spring and drags her into the other half of the supernatural world.
1. Welcome and Wanderings

**Hello. Thanks for stopping by. I don't have much experience with creative writing, so please leave a review telling me what you like and what you think I should work on.**

**This chapter was updated on June 16, 2015. I didn't change any major events, but I did tinker around with details to try to make it sound more fluid and professional. I do re-read and edit chapters before posting, but I reach a certain point where I think, "Enough already! Just post it and move on!" Then, whenever I need a break from the current chapter, I go back and look at old ones. Happy reading!**

Sunday, 2:00 PM

The floor shivered as the front door slammed downstairs, but Dess didn't notice. Her attention was absorbed by the wire that she was currently attempting to solder to the metal rod on her desk.

"Dess!" Charlie Swan hollered up the stairs. "We're here!"

Dess continued to hold the solder and the iron to the joint between wire and rod. Thin tendrils of smoke danced by her face. She was so close to a good stopping point…..

She finished just in time. As she cleaned the tip of her soldering iron with a damp yellow sponge, Charlie rapped his knuckles on her bedroom door.

"Desdemona, come say hello to your sister," he reproved.

"Half-sister," Dess corrected under her breath. She brushed a strand of short, dyed-black hair out of her face and continued cleaning her worktable. Tools and supplies cost money, and they lasted longer when cared for properly. She distributed various items to drawers and wall boards and then glanced around her room one last time to make sure that everything was in its proper place. Finally she grabbed her sunglasses from the table and headed out the door.

"Don't worry, our introduction shouldn't go that bad," she told Charlie when she strode passed him in the hall. "It's not like we could blow up the house."

It took Dess five strides to walk from her bedroom door to her sister's. As she peered around the corner, she observed the brunette girl who was unpacking her suitcases. The girl was pale. This was highlighted by the contrast with the room's sunny décor; the walls were a pale blue, and the curtains yellow. Most of the furniture was very light brown, and the patchwork quilt on the bed contained a variety of colors. The bookshelf in the corner held several worn paperbacks whose classic titles brought to mind torturous high school English classes. Exactly twenty seconds later, the girl straightened, holding several brightly colored shirts destined for her closet. She did not pause as she spoke.

"Can I help you?"

"So you're Isabella Swan," Dess commented as she moved unapologetically into plain view.

"Bella. And you're Dess."

Dess shrugged and continued watching. As she stood there, she played with the metal links on the simple bracelet around her left wrist.

"So….," Bella began awkwardly, "the black Ford truck. Is it yours or Charlie's?"

"Mine. It's a 1997," Dess announced proudly. "And no, you cannot ride with me to avoid being seen in that monster that Charlie bought you. What year is it?"

"Uh… a '53, I think." Bella hesitantly returned the commiserating smile that briefly appeared on Dess's face.

Dess then nodded and muttered, "18. Not great, but not bad." She turned to leave, but peered back around the doorframe when Bella addressed her again.

"18?"

"Oh. 1+9+5+3. 18." Then Dess swept away down the hall, the hem of her black dress fluttering. With her sisterly obligations satisfied, she headed downstairs to catch a documentary on TV.

Bella eventually came downstairs, grabbed her car keys, and left. After she returned, sounds began to emanate from the kitchen. When Dess's show on the Discovery Channel ended, she realized that the clatter from the kitchen had not culminated with the sound of the microwave. She entered the kitchen and then met Bella's glance with a raised eyebrow.

Bella was cooking multiple things on the stove and in the oven. Dess had discovered that she and her father shared a similar indifference towards food. All that mattered was that it tasted half-way decent and satisfied hunger. As a result, they most often ate takeout or microwavable meals.

Charlie, having noticed that Dess was finished with the TV, abandoned the kitchen table in favor of a baseball game. Bella took advantage of his absence to speak with her half-sister.

"You guys aren't very domestic, are you," she stated as she stirred red liquid in a sauce pan.

Dess ignored her and grabbed a spoon, which she used to taste the sauce.

"Look," Bella began, "I'm not judging or anything…"

Dess cut her off with a flat stare. "He's a bachelor. Between the time when your mother divorced him and when I came here at the beginning of fall semester, he's been completely by himself. He pays his bills and files his taxes on time like a good law-abiding citizen and police chief. I'm certain I can find him some tax deductions this year that he's been missing, but other than that he's fine."

"Taxes?" Bella asked, surprised. "That wasn't what I was thinking about."

"He can keep his house however he wants," Dess shrugged carelessly and dropped her spoon in the sink with a loud clang.

"Well, he needs to eat better. He's not young, after all. And this place could use a good cleaning."

"Be my guest. Make sure you use an antimicrobial." With a grin, Dess grabbed a stack of plates and began setting the table.

"What? Why an antimicrobial?"

"It's such a wonderful word, don't you think?" Dess then disappeared to her room, the thudding of her boots on the stairs accompanied by a strange metallic clatter. Bella shook her head in confusion at Dess's second abrupt departure of the day.

Dinner was a quiet affair. In the beginning Charlie tried to make some small talk, but he quickly realized that Bella was not any more interested in it than Dess had been. Charlie was clearly relieved when he determined that pointless conversation would not be required of him. There was, however, one thing of importance to address.

"Well, girls," he began. "Your spring semester starts tomorrow. Dess already picked up her schedule at the end of last semester, but you'll need to go early to get yours." He pointed his fork at Bella as he spoke. He took another bite of spaghetti and continued after swallowing.

"The school is just off of the highway and clearly marked. Be careful in the parking lot. Some people your age drive poorly, and I've been called out several times after wrecks." His tone was gruff, but his concern was sincere.

Dess simply nodded and continued eating, while Bella murmured her acquiescence.

The rest of the meal passed in a comfortable silence. When Dess finished eating, she washed her dishes and returned to her room.

* * *

Dess turned on her lamp when she entered her room, though the dark shade kept the illumination dim. She sat on her bed, pulled out her phone, and made a call.

"So, how'd it go? Did you try to eat each other for dinner?" Rex asked by way of greeting. His voice sounded distant. Even Madeleine's old rotary phone was complex enough to irritate the darkling part of Rex's brain. He had probably set the handset on the table so it wouldn't buzz in his ear.

"No, not everyone's an animal like you are," Dess retorted.

"Just checking," Rex said, his amusement evident in his voice. "I still can't get over the fact that you have a sister and didn't tell us. What's the history?"

"I didn't tell you because it wasn't any of your business. I'm surprised Melissa never picked up on it. But you're not going to stop annoying me until I give you the scoop, are you?"

"Nope," Rex admitted cheerfully.

Dess frowned and let the silence stretch out for a long moment before continuing, "My mom grew up in Forks, Washington. It's a small town in the Olympic Peninsula. She and some guy from the graduating class below hers went to the same college and became good friends. When she graduated college she got a job in Oklahoma, so they had to say their goodbyes. Nine months later I was born in Bixby. The guy was planning to stay in Forks to take care of his parents and become a police officer. He finished his degree shortly after I was born and then met some girl who had just graduated high school. It was love at first sight. They married and had a daughter, and got divorced a few years later. The woman left and took the girl with her. It was shortly after that that my mom got around to telling him about me."

Dess stopped talking, and Rex whistled into the silence. "So why's your sister coming to live with him now? Did she come because you did last semester?"

"Hardly," Dess snorted. "She didn't even know I existed. When she told Charlie she was coming, he mentioned me to her. Apparently her mom recently married a baseball player, so she's living here to allow her mom to travel with the guy."

"I guess she's a nice person then."

"We'll see. So far she just seems light an extremely stuffy daylighter. How're things going in Bixby?"

"We're still coming across new midnighters in the Tulsa area, since the population is so large and people are always coming and going. The new polymath is doing alright, but it's not the same without you here."

Dess chuckled. "You're just upset that he won't put up with as much of your crap as I did. And someone had to go to the west coast to teach new Midnighters. I helped you train new people in Bixby for a year and a half, and it seems like you've done well in the six months I've been gone."

"Be honest," Rex laughed. "You just wanted to get away from Madeleine."

"Any person with any brains at all would jump at a chance to get away from Maddy."

Rex wisely changed the subject.

"The others are still in D.C. I think they'll stay there until Melissa is certain that there aren't any Mindcasters nearby. We don't want anyone messing with the politicians."

"Just what we need," Dess said sarcastically. "More Mindcasters meddling. Well, I've got to go. I've got a toy that I want to have finished by tonight."

"Have fun and don't get eaten," Rex said.

"Don't worry, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself without a bossy Seer looking over my shoulder. Look after your posse of newbies. Bye." Dess hung up. She spent the next several hours continuing to solder. Since she was still alone here, she needed to make sure she had enough weaponry to keep her safe. Her newest toy was a long aluminum rod with a pointed tip.

When she finished, she checked her clock. The blue time was about ten minutes away. She checked on her backpack, which contained her small and medium sized pieces of named metal. There was a variety of screws, nails, nuts, bolts, and paperclips. She also carried a metal flashlight in case she ever ran into another Flame-bringer. It had its uses if she was caught out in normal time, too. When she was satisfied that she was ready, she glanced at the clock and waited.

117 seconds later, a soft blue light filled the room with a subtle lurch. Dess smiled into the silence. The normal quiet night-time sounds had ceased entirely. Dess's bedside clock did not tick. The nocturnal birds and bugs did not chirp. No cars drove by.

Dess picked up her backpack, the clanking inside seeming unnaturally loud. But rather than cringing from the sound, Dess's grin grew wider. Those metal pieces protected her from the monsters that inhabited the blue time.

She strode confidently through the house, mindless of the clatter made by her heavy boots and metal jewelry. No one would hear her. She went downstairs and out the front door, her backpack on her back and her metal spear in her hand. She retrieved her bike from where it rested against the porch and rode down to the street.

At first glance, the blue light that filled the world seemed to be the only unusual thing. But closer inspection would reveal many other abnormalities. For one thing, there were no shadows. It was as if any place that would have contained a shadow was instead filled with a blue-tinted luminescence.

The next unusual sighting was the car in the right lane that Dess peddled past. It was immobile, even though it was in the middle of the block. But despite the car's stationary state, its wheels were slightly elongated as if it were moving. It was frozen in the act of driving through a puddle, and the wave of water was frozen in mid-flight.

Dess did not spare a glance at the car or its driver, whose unnaturally unwavering attention was focused on the road as though he was still driving. Thankfully the rain had stopped shortly before midnight, otherwise Dess would have been soaked as she rode through a sea of raindrops frozen in mid-air.

Dess had just passed the school when a movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She instantly slammed on her brakes, and the bike skidded to a halt. Her heart pounding, she steadied herself with her foot on the ground. She swung her spear from its resting place on the handlebars and pointed it towards the swath of forest on her right. The next three seconds seemed to pass much slower than usual as she scanned for motion. Then a small black snake-like form slithered from behind a stump, and Dess snorted in disgust.

"Just a slither," she announced to the blue world. "Nothing dangerous. Unfortunately."

She pulled a large nail out of her pocket and eyed it critically.

"Condescending," she muttered, and tossed the nail towards the snake-like creature. The head of the nail bounced off the slither's scaly back and gave off a bright blue spark. The slither jerked away and hissed, and then began to shiver. Limb buds appeared, and hair followed. Shortly afterwards, the snake was gone and a small, skinny black cat bolted away.

Dess shook her head, checked the hands on her windup watch, and turned back towards Charlie's house. When she got there, she made sure to put her bike back exactly the way it had been before. She headed upstairs and began getting ready for bed. Shortly after she entered her room, the blue light drained away and normal colors and shadows replaced it. Her bedside clock showed that no time had passed since the blue time began. Her wristwatch, however, had advanced by exactly one hour.


	2. Biology and Beaver

**Hello again. This is the second fanfic that I've ever posted and the first to make it beyond the first chapter. I hope everyone is enjoying the story.**

**This chapter was updated on June 16, 2014. No major plot changes, just tinkering with descriptions and wording.**

Monday, 8:00 AM

Dess glared at her alarm clock as it blared. Then she rolled over and slapped the button that stopped the offending noise. With a sigh, she hauled herself out of bed. The late bell rang at 8:45, and it would not go over well with Charlie if she was tardy. She had the house to herself as she got ready. Charlie was already at work, and Bella had probably left early since it was her first day.

She glanced in her closet, grabbing the first pair of black pants she saw. A black long-sleeved T-shirt joined her ensemble, as did her usual black boots. She donned her assembly of named metal bracelets before grabbing her backpack and thundering down the stairs. Dess paused in the brightly-painted kitchen long enough to grab a cereal bar, and then headed for the door. As it slammed behind her, she slid her sunglasses over her eyes.

A string of curses filled the cab of the Ford. A tiny silver Volvo cut her off in the school parking lot, and Dess reflected on the temptation to squish it like a bug. There were advantages to driving a truck. After that, things were completely unremarkable until her third class. The U.S. Government teacher was a fan of assigned seating. The boy in the seat to her right, Mike Newton, was one of the popular crowd. Usually he ignored her, but today he leaned her way as the teacher prepared her notes for the day's lesson.

"Your sister. She's really interesting," he commented.

Dess didn't bother to look at him.

"Half-sister. If you like her, go talk to her yourself." Dess turned away, wishing that she was allowed to wear her sunglasses in the school building. It was easier to avoid people if they couldn't meet her eyes.

By the time lunch came around, everyone was trading information about Isabella Swan. It reminded Dess of Jessica Day when she first came to Bixby, except that Jess had actually been interesting. Bella was just another daylighter, albeit one who was related to her.

"Have you seen the new girl?"

"Have you spoken to her?"

"What's she like?"

"Isn't she from Phoenix? Why is she so pale?"

Forks had a small population, nowhere near the 43,200 necessary for it to be likely to be the birthplace of a midnighter. Dess sat by herself in her usual spot. There was not an overabundance of tables in the lunch room, and Dess had sought out the emptiest territory. The local rich kids, the Cullens and Hales, had had enough force of presence to keep an entire table to themselves. On her first day here in the fall, she had plopped herself down on the far end of their table despite their glares. She never made any move to talk with them, and they settled into a silent truce.

Dess normally spent lunch working on math problems or designs to put on future weapons. As her pencil flew across the paper, she glanced at her sister to see how she interacted with the population of Forks High. Kids were flocking around Bella's table like slithers around the number twelve. When the bell rang, a few of the male groupies seemed intent on following her to her next class.

Due to differing curriculums in Bixby and Forks, Dess's schedule was weird. There were classes that she had already taken in Bixby that were senior classes in Forks, and classes that would have been for seniors in Bixby but were taken earlier here. One of the classes in the second category was Biology, which Dess, a senior, was now taking with juniors. One of those juniors happened to be Bella Swan.

When Dess walked in just before the bell, she briefly noted that what had previously been the only empty seat in the class was now occupied by her sister. As the teacher droned on, she examined a county map that she kept hidden behind her binder. Her gaze drifted up from the map as her brain searched for patterns in the coordinates. Maybe the Olympic Peninsula would have weird spots like Bixby did, places with special significance that could be found by doing the math.

Motion caused her to temporarily focus on what was happening before her eyes. She barely noted that Edward Cullen, Bella's lab partner, was leaning away from Bella as if repulsed by a magnet while sending her a death glare. When class finally ended, Edward practically ran out of the room. Bella sent Dess a questioning look, but Dess just shrugged. She didn't know or care why other people did what they did.

During her last class, Dess turned her attention to a much larger problem. For much of her life, there had been a Mindcaster around. Melissa made it much easier to find people. But now Dess had to find new midnighters on her own, which was turning out to be infinitely harder than she had imagined.

Dess had spent her first semester exploring Forks for any signs of midnighters. Every night she had headed out on her bike during the blue time to see if there was anyone else awake. The city only had 3,500 people compared to Bixby's 23,000, so after those first six months she was certain that there were no midnighters to be found.

She also knew her way around the city extremely well. Back in Bixby Dess had examined the maps, trying to figure out which mathematical patterns and equations predicted contortions and other midnight anomalies. Lore sites were not on her list, of course. The hour had never been present here before, so there would not be any recorded lore. Dess couldn't actually test all of her predictions as some required a Mindcaster to tell her if casting was stronger or weaker from a particular spot, but she could test to see if location affected the strength of her weapons. This research, however, could only advance when she was tested by a darkling or a slither. She hadn't seen any of the former since moving here, and very few of the latter.

Dess slipped on her sunglasses despite the clouds as she stepped out of the building that housed her last class. She pondered what to do next, and decided to determine if there were any other population centers that she could bike to during the hour. She brushed an offending raindrop off of her nose as she walked across the parking lot but was brought up short when a horn blared at her.

"Watch it!" she yelled at the car that sped around her. It was the same silver Volvo that had cut her off this morning. It darted around other cars and burned rubber as it pulled out onto the highway; for some reason it was in even more of a hurry than it had been earlier.

The metal car keys jingled merrily as Dess unlocked her truck. She flung her backpack across the cab to the passenger seat with an irritated grunt and slammed the driver's side door behind her. When the rush of cars died down, she started for home.

* * *

Monday, 5:00 PM

After pushing the power button on her desktop computer, Dess grabbed her music box with Ada Lovelace. She fiddled with the gears and listen to the resulting music as she waited for the computer to boot up.

A map of the Olympic Peninsula and a quick internet search informed her that the nearest place to search was an unincorporated township nine miles north of Forks named Beaver. It only had 400 residents, but Dess did not plan to leave any stone unturned. She had asked for and received a black 21-speed bike for Christmas, and she could average twenty miles per hour on it if the road was flat. If she wanted to make it to Beaver and back during the hour, it would only leave her six minutes to explore per night. Beaver might be small, but that would still take her a painfully long time. Driving there before the hour would be her best option.

That night Dess started packing her backpack long before midnight. This time she placed towels between the layers of metal to muffle the sound of clinking. When her clock informed her that it was 11:00 PM, she carefully opened her door. She tip-toed down the stairs, moving slowly to prevent her metal ankle bracelets from jingling. She was half-way to the front door when a voice caused her to freeze.

"Desdemona, where are you going?"

The kitchen light flicked on, revealing Charlie Swan. He was standing at the counter with a glass of water in one hand, and he was wearing the old T-shirt and shorts that he usually wore to bed.

"Um… I couldn't remember if I locked my truck or not. I was going to check."

Charlie frowned. He looked down at her boots and then up at her backpack.

"We've had this conversation before, Dess. I don't want you driving around town at night without telling me your plans. Especially on a school night."

"I'm not doing anything illegal," Dess protested. "I'm not drinking, smoking, or doing drugs. I'm not selling them either, or hanging out with people who are. There's no curfew. I just enjoy being outside and exploring in the dark."

"Who knows what could happen. I've seen some pretty nasty stuff in the years I've been an officer. Most crimes aren't premeditated. They're crimes of opportunity. And a young girl like yourself out alone can be a pretty tempting opportunity. You usually throw your bike in the back, too. Riding a bike alone at night is even more dangerous."

Charlie gave Dess an apologetic look.

"I just want you to be safe. I want to be able to tell your mother that I kept her daughter in one piece."

Dess leveled a look of irritation and impatience at Charlie.

"I'm a legal adult. I can take responsibility for my own decisions. This is Forks, Charlie. A small town in the middle of nowhere. I think I'll be alright. You don't understand."

Charlie sighed, "No, I guess I don't. But I do understand that I don't want you going out alone. If you're going to live in my house, I'm responsible for you. You're staying here. Give me your keys. I'll leave them on the counter for you in the morning."

"Don't bother," Dess growled scathingly. "I'm not going anywhere now." She turned and stomped towards the stairs.

"Give me your keys, young lady," Charlie ordered in his Chief-of-Police voice. "If you don't you'll be riding to school with your sister for a month."

Dess did a U-turn without pausing or slowing. As she moved towards Charlie her boots' clomping increased in volume. She scowled angrily at him and slapped her keys into his outstretched palm. Finally she headed back towards her room to wait for midnight. As she reached the top of the stairs, Bella's head appeared from her doorway.

"Mind your own business," Dess snarled before Bella had a chance to do or say anything. Dess disappeared into her own room and slammed the door behind her. Ten minutes later she heard Charlie walk by her room.

"Goodnight, Dess," he whispered softly. She did not respond.

* * *

Midnight rolled in like a calm, blue wave.

Dess rolled off her bed and flew downstairs. The kickstand snapped sharply as she kicked it out of the way and mounted her bike. She hit the road at top speed and was soon powering down the highway. Though her temper had cooled somewhat while she waited for midnight, she was still irritated. Her eyes occasionally flicked to one side or the other as she scanned the forest for something on which to vent her ire.

Unfortunately the trees flew by without divulging any darklings. Dess puffed as she peddled into Beaver 25 minutes into the blue time. She decided to give herself eight minutes to explore. She turned onto the first residential side street that she came across, noting the name on the street sign.

"Hello?" she hollered, coasting down the center of the road. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

Up ahead the road curved to the right. Dess swerved around a car that likely held someone getting home after a late shift at work and a long commute. After successfully navigating the obstacle, Dess returned her attention to her surroundings.

"Anybody out..," a shriek tore through the air as something plowed into Dess. Its momentum tipped her bike to the left and she hit the blacktop. Her spear was jarred out of her hand by the fall, and it clattered as it rolled away. Something leathery was beating at her face, and she desperately jerked her right arm up in front of her to protect herself. An icy coldness pierced her wrist, drawing forth a sharp, shocked breath. When she finally thrust her arm away from her face, her assailant's appearance became clear.

It was another snake-like slither, but this one had wings. The end of its black tongue had separated into filaments, which were wrapped around her wrist. An excited, feral grin lit up Dess's face as she kicked her bike away to free her legs. Then she swiftly brought her knees to her chest and kicked the creature that was mauling her.

"Glorification! Vulcanization! Dess roared as she lashed out. As her boots connected with the slither, blue sparks erupted from her ankle bracelets. The winged monster gave a high-pitched keen as it was thrown away with more force than the kick alone could have accounted for. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, and the slither hit the curb and fell still.

But Dess was already rolling to her feet and unzipping her backpack. As she had kicked her bike away, she had heard hissing from the opposite direction. She pulled out a thirteen inch long farrier hoof nipper and strode towards the nearest slither. It curled up and struck at her, but Dess danced to the side.

"Overproducing!" she insulted as she brought the head of the nippers down on the slither's skull in a fountain of sparks. The final slither had shifted to a small black feline the size of a feral cat during the previous exchange. As Dess looked up from the slither she had just killed, it bounded towards her and leapt for her face. She batted it aside with the now-inert nippers and drew a knife from a side pouch on her backpack. But the tip of the knife caught on something, and the cat-slither rushed at her as she was trying to free her weapon. With her attention focused on the knife, her half-hearted swipe with the nippers missed the cat entirely. It jumped through the air and landed on her upper left arm, sinking its claws in to find purchase.

In the next instant, the tip of the knife came free.

"Parabolically!" she shouted as she sliced at the slither's side with the knife. It shivered as its small form began to burn from the fatal wound. It refused to admit it was dead, however, and growled as it began clawing its way onto her shoulder, its blood dripping down onto her torn sleeve and mixing with her own. She gritted her teeth and stabbed at it, the point of the knife sinking into its side behind the shoulder. It spasmed as blue electricity flowed through it, claws temporarily sinking in deeper before falling away entirely. The corpse hit the ground with a dry thud.

Dess glanced around, straining to hear. She stood there in silence for an entire minute. Slithers liked traveling in groups of twelve, and she had only fought three. But nothing moved, and she checked her watch. The struggle had been brief, and she needed to leave now in order to make it home before the hour ended.

"Ew. Singed cat hair," Dess remarked as she wrinkled her nose. She wiped the blood off of her used tools and placed them in the front pouch of her backpack. She zipped everything up and retrieved her spear from where it had rolled down the street. Finally she picked up her bike and headed for the highway. Despite her painful minor injuries, her grin was still firmly in place. This was what she had hoped for.

Dess made it home without further incident. The blue light drained from the world as she crossed the living room, so she had to count the steps to avoid the squeaky ones as she climbed the stairs. Before going to bed, she took stock of her injuries. There was nothing she could do for the bruises forming on her right wrist. Her upper left arm and shoulder bore a few small scratches, some of which were still oozing droplets of blood.

She crept to the bathroom, where she quietly rinsed off her and the slither's blood. She then dabbed rubbing alcohol on the cuts, grumbling to herself at the sting. Once back in her room, she wrapped her arm in gauze, kicked her torn, bloody shirt under her bed, and collapsed on top of her covers. She was instantly asleep.


	3. Travel and Talking

**Many people like Dess. One of my biggest worries is that I'm not correctly portraying her personality. Please let me know how I'm doing.**

The rest of the week fell into a predictable rhythm. Charlie's increased watchfulness prevented Dess from sneaking out before the secret hour, and her time exploring Beaver was frustratingly short. Every day she went to school, came home, and holed up in her room.

On Friday morning, Dess pulled into the school parking lot two minutes before the late bell. As she started walking towards the building, someone started walking beside her.

"Hi," Bella said.

Dess nodded in her direction.

"I wanted to talk to you," the younger girl continued. Suddenly, she disappeared. Dess looked back in surprise to see Bella climbing to her feet and eyeing a rather large crack in the blacktop. Bella hurried to catch up.

"My Biology lab partner, Edward Cullen. He's been gone all week. Have you heard anything?"

"I don't keep tabs on the rumor mill. Try asking Jessica Stanley. I bet she knows more than you'd ever want to hear."

"Yeah, I've noticed that about her," Bella replied. She gave a brief smile, but the disappointment was evident in her slumped shoulders.

"Well….. I guess I'll see you later," she spoke softly as she split off to go to the building that had her class. Dess waived her hand briefly in response and continued on her way.

Seeing the Cullens at lunch reminded her of Bella's question. She was letting her mind drift when she realized that it was abnormal for Edward to be gone. The whole family disappeared when the weather was nice enough for camping, and sometimes Jasper and Alice ditched. But it was rare for just one of the others to disappear for a conspicuous amount of time.

Dess mentally shrugged and returned her gaze to the window. Everyone had secrets. Some just had bigger secrets than others. She somehow made it through the rest of the school day without losing her mind out of boredom. Charlie made it home early, and Bella baked fish for dinner. Halfway through the meal, Charlie paused and looked at Dess.

"I know that you like to be out and about, Dess. You've been behaving well and respecting my wishes all week. What I'm trying to say is… go have fun. Just be careful, and take your phone. I want you back by one."

"Thanks," Dess returned, giving no hint of the irony in his speech. "I'll make sure to avoid any human monsters. I'll let you have the fun of chasing them down." She immediately took another bite of fish to end the conversation.

Around ten o'clock, Dess carried her backpack out to her truck. She hoisted her bike into the truck bed, and then drove to Beaver. Once there she drove down all of the roads she could find to help familiarize herself with the parts she had not biked through. Around eleven, it started to rain. Eventually she parked along the main drag and waited for midnight to come. 78 seconds later, she was surrounded by blue silence and sparkling diamonds.

Dess spent the entire hour scouring the town, but she did not find a thing. There was not even a slither. The only sound was the squeak of her bike as she pedaled along. She was completely soaked within five minutes. As she rode along, she collided with hundreds of raindrops that were hanging motionless in midair. As she touched each one, it suddenly sprang into motion and soaked her clothes or dripped down her arms. She was going slowly enough that they did not sting when she hit them, but occasionally water would drip into her eyes. At one point she looked back, examining the waterless tunnel she had made through the sea of raindrops.

Then the hour ended, and sounds were reborn into the world. Leaves rustled in the wind, and bugs chirped. The freed raindrops continued along their path to the ground with a steady patter, and the Dess-shaped tunnel instantly collapsed. Dess headed back to her truck, shivering as she suddenly became cold.

As usual, the heat did not kick in until she was three quarters of the way home. She made it through the door with thirteen minutes to spare. Charlie looked up from his newspaper at the kitchen table and smiled at her as she walked past.

"Goodnight, Dess," he whispered.

"Night," she replied. She took a hot shower and went to bed.

Dess rolled out of bed the next day at eleven, squinting at the weak light that managed to filter through the clouds and her curtains. Shortly afterwards, company arrived. Billy Black was Charlie's best friend, and he had been over several times since Dess had come to Forks. This time, however, he brought his son.

"How come he never brought Jacob before?" she asked when she and Charlie were alone in the kitchen.

Charlie answered as he pulled two beers out of the fridge.

"Jake and Bella played together when they were little. Billy probably just wanted to give them a chance to get reacquainted."

At that point the aforementioned young people relocated to the kitchen table. Charlie headed back to the living room, and Dess took a seat at the table. Bella glanced between them for a minute.

"Have you two met?" she inquired.

"No, we haven't," Jacob admitted. "Hi, I'm Jake."

"Dess. So, do you have any embarrassing childhood stories about Bella?"

"Hey!" Bella protested.

Jacob grinned. "I do, but I value my safety too much to share them," he teased as he gave Bella a mock fearful look.

"That's right, you better be afraid," Bella joked. Dess affected a bored expression as the other two returned to their previous discussion. The next logical place to look for midnighters would be the reservation, and she could use a good excuse to spend time there.

Apparently Jacob Black was smitten with Isabella Swan. One of them brought up seeing each other again, and Dess jumped on the opportunity.

"Hey, maybe you can show us around La Push. I've been wanting to see more of the local area."

"Sure! How about tomorrow?" Jacob asked hopefully.

"Won't our parents want us to stay home on a Sunday?" Bella asked.

Dess shook her head. "Charlie's not clingy like that. Quite honestly, he'd probably like to go to the rez and fish with his friends. It's fine with me, Jake."

Bella agreed, and Jacob's face lit up. Dess did not want to sit around for any of their small talk, so she made an excuse about having homework to finish and went upstairs. She really did have homework to do, so she worked until someone knocked on her door.

"Dess. Dinner," Charlie said. Dess stared morosely at the computer screen where her essay was taking shape. English was not her favorite subject. It was too inexact and open to interpretation. She saved the document and then headed for the stairs. That night Bella had made fish again, though the recipe seemed different. After Charlie had finished eating and complimented Bella on her cooking, Bella brought up their Sunday plans.

"Dad, did you have any plans for tomorrow?" Charlie seemed surprised by the question.

"Nothing important. Why? Is there something you want to do?

"Well, Dess and I asked Jake to show us around La Push. Would it be okay if we went tomorrow?"

"Of course. It's good for you to have friends here. There are lots of nice people on the rez. In fact, I was planning to go fishing with one of my friends, Henry Clearwater, tomorrow. I could give you guys a ride."

"No, don't worry about it," Bella told him. "Teenagers like to drive, remember?"

"Of course. Just drive safely."

Dess chuckled, "I can already see the headline: Police Chief's Daughter Caught Speeding."

Everyone winced.

"I know you girls have homework to finish before you have fun tomorrow. I'll do the dishes so you can get started."

They carried their dishes to the sink, and then Dess and Bella headed for their rooms. Dess skipped the squeaky stair out of habit, but it groaned behind her as it took Bella's weight.

"Hey, Dess," Bella said. Dess paused at the top of the stairs and waited to hear what Bella wanted.

"I'm in Trig this year. I heard you were good at math. Would you look over my homework for me?"

"If you'll look at my essay."

"On…"

"_Crime and Punishment. _I'm almost done. I just don't know what to do with the conclusion."

"Sounds good. I'll grab my homework," Bella started towards her room. Dess stepped into hers and turned her computer on. Bella eventually came in and eyed the room. The walls were painted a dark, navy blue, and the bedspread that Dess sat on was black.

"The paper is saved on the desktop. Give me your homework," Dess ordered.

The sounds of rustling paper and a clicking mouse filled the room. Occasionally Bella's eyes strayed to her surroundings; each time they settled on her sister, they saw the same scene. Dess was completely absorbed in the math. Her face was mostly impassive, though occasionally an irritated frown would take over. Her concentration, unlike Bella's, never wavered. The silence became comfortable, and Bella was finally able to focus. Time must have picked up speed, for when she finished the sun had gone down completely. Dess was lying flat on her bed and staring at the ceiling. Bella cleared her throat.

"You really need to be careful with your negative signs," Dess commented. "The derivative of the cosine of theta is the _negative _sine of theta." Bella took the paper and glanced at it. Dess told her the number of the incorrect problem, and Bella reworked it. Then Dess pointed out another mistake and walked Bella through the problem. They continued like this until Dess announced the assignment perfect. Bella glanced over the full sheet again; it looked like half of the problems had been corrected. She was skeptical, but she did not want to offend her sister.

"Thank you," she said as she set the paper aside and turned to the computer screen. "I went over the whole essay, and went ahead and wrote a conclusion for you." She gave Dess some general advice, but Dess stopped her when she started to describe in detail the changes she had made.

"I trust you. Let me know if you need any more math help. When do you want to leave for La Push?"

"We never asked Jake. I'll call him in the morning. Maybe we could aim for one or so? After lunch?"

"Sounds good. I'll drive. See you in the morning."

"Alright." Bella was almost to the door when she turned around. "Dess? What do you think of Forks?"

Dess glanced at her clock, which read 10:00 PM.

"It's small, even smaller than Bixby. And it's green. The trees seem to take up the entire sky. But high school is the same. A place filled with kids that don't care and just want to get where they're going."

"It's different from Phoenix, yet it's almost exactly like what I expected to be," Bella admitted, "though I can't figure out why everyone is still interested in me."

"It depends on how you handle them. Most new kids who seem approachable either avoid the popular crowd or join the struggle for superiority. Either way, it's a direct and predictable reaction. But some people don't care. The friendly and interesting person on the surface hides a person who doesn't fit in. You remind me of one of my friends who was in a similar situation. She moved from Chicago to Bixby. The popular kids loved her and she liked them, but they could never understand her."

The answer was clearly deeper than Bella had expected.

"Why did you come here, Dess? Most kids wouldn't want to be uprooted from their friends their senior year."

"As they say, nothing lasts forever. Circumstances changed, and now we're going our separate ways. I'm looking for something. What about you?" Dess returned the personal question.

"Well, my mom remarried…."

"I know that," Dess cut her off, "But people aren't that altruistic. That's just your excuse. What did you expect to find here?"

"I don't know."

"Bullshit. But that's okay. It's your business."

"You said you're looking for something. What did _you_ expect to find?" Bella asked.

"And that," Dess smiled, "Is my business. See you in the morning." She motioned towards the door. At first Bella hesitated, but then she took the hint and left.


	4. Sightseeing and Success

**I use contractions in my dialogue because people use them as they speak, but I'm not sure whether or not I should use them in my narration and description. What do you guys think? Also, I did a re-read of Midnighters recently, so it's much fresher in my mind. How could I have forgotten Geostationary?**

Sunday

Dess rolled out of bed shortly before noon. She was sitting at the table and pouring a bowl full of Cheerios when Bella walked in.

"Jake said he was fine with one," she announced as she heated leftovers in the microwave. Dess nodded and continued crunching on her cereal.

"I think your clock is fast, too. It said 10:00 PM a few minutes before I left last night, but when I got back to my room mine said 9:40."

"Mine's on Dess time." When she finished she placed her bowl in the sink and went upstairs to grab her keys. Bella had finished by the time she came back, and they headed for the door.

The cab was quiet as they drove down the highway. The hum of the tires against the blacktop was soothing, and the greenery blurred as it slipped by on each side. The sun found a hole in the clouds and warmed the interior. Dess rolled down her window to let the sun and smell of the forest invade.

When the first houses came into sight, Bella began to murmur the directions Jacob had given her over the phone. After a few turns they found the house bearing Jacob's address, and Dess parked by the curb. She looked up after walking around the front of the truck and saw Jacob Black standing on the porch.

"Bella! Dess!" he called.

"Hey, Jake," Bella answered. Dess nodded.

"Do you guys want to come in for a minute? I'll grab sodas." Jacob strode back through the door, and the girls followed.

"Have a seat," he gestured towards the chairs around the kitchen table. They did, and he came back a minute later with three cans of Coke. Bella and Jacob started an awkward conversation, but it smoothed out when Bella asked after his twin sisters. The sodas were finished by the time that topic petered out, and Jacob offered to give them the tour of the reservation. They headed out to Dess's truck, where Bella slid to the middle and Jacob took the passenger seat.

He pointed out the major features like the schools, stores, and the post office. Then they crept down the residential roads as Jacob pointed out the houses of people he thought Bella might remember. The reservation was not large, and eventually they ended up at one of the beaches.

"I'm going to sit here and take a break. Don't wait for me," Dess announced. She needed a break from the others' company. Jacob and Bella nodded and wandered farther along the beach as they continued their conversation.

Dess settled on a rock and stared at the ocean. She'd never seen it before. Did darkling or slithers have aquatic forms? Where there any Midnighter talents that had never been used because they were only useful with large bodies of water? Rex had admitted that there were stories in the lore of talents that remained mysteries. Midnighters could go to the rock in the Snake Pit and discover the names of their talents, but a small number of midnighters never figured out the full extent of what their talents allowed them to do.

The wind picked up in late afternoon, and Jacob and Bella returned to escape the cold beach. They piled in the truck and headed back towards Jacob's house. When they piled out, Jacob gestured to the hood of the vehicle.

"Cars are my hobby. Mind if I take a look?" he asked.

"F-150's aren't exactly rare, but go ahead."

He grinned and asked her a few questions about the truck's history, which eventually segued into questions about Bixby.

"I can't imagine a place without trees," he admitted as he examined the truck's machinery. "It seems like it would be empty."

"Yeah, but you can see for miles in any direction. It feels so closed in, here. I'm happy to see places outside of Bixby, but it's weird once the newness wears off."

"It's easy to get bored here, that's for sure," Jacob commented. "I'm hoping to go to college. After that, we'll see whether or not I come back. Well, everything seems to be in good shape. You're low on windshield wiper fluid, though." He closed the hood and patted it. "It was nice to meet you. Thanks for driving."

"No problem. Not having a license sucks, doesn't it. That was me not too long ago."

Jacob and Bella said their goodbyes, and Jacob invited the girls to come back.

They got back to the house as the sun was setting. Bella put dinner, which thankfully was not fish, in the oven. While she set the table, she noticed Dess carrying her backpack out to her truck for school tomorrow. Charlie pulled in the drive with five minutes remaining on the oven timer.

"Nice timing, Chief," Dess greeted.

"Hey, Dad. How was fishing?"

"Not bad. I've put most of what I got in the freezer."

"Fish for breakfast?" Bella asked with a shy smile.

"Of course. Best when fresh!" He grinned as he put the remaining package of fish in the fridge.

Everyone sat down and ate, and then went their separate ways for the evening. Just as Charlie finished his beer and headed for the stairs, Dess rushed down.

"Have you seen my thumb drive?" she asked.

"No, I haven't seen any thumb drives recently. What does it look like?"

"It's black." Dess scanned the living room. She eyed the end tables and checked under the couch cushions. Then she examined the kitchen table, countertops, and floors, and finally raced upstairs to check the hallway and bathroom.

"Have you seen my thumb drive?" she asked Bella when her sister opened her door curiously.

"Nope."

Dess went back to her room and stared for a moment, and then jogged back downstairs. She brushed her hair out of her face as she considered where to look next.

Bella must have followed her, because she asked, "Where do you last remember having it?"

Dess stood for a moment with a look of concentration on her face. Then she frowned.

"I thought I left it at home, but when I sat on that rock at the beach I realized it was still in my back pocket. I took it out to avoid breaking it. I must have left it there."

"Well, I suppose you can go look for it after school tomorrow," Charlie suggested.

Dess grumbled, "I have a school project on it. It was almost finished. The longer I wait, the more likely it'll disappear. I need to get it now, Charlie." Charlie hesitated, but the importance of a school project swayed him.

"Alright. But come straight back. Do you remember how to get there?"

"Yes," Dess said impatiently as she grabbed her keys.

"Call me if you get lost. And come straight home. Would you like me to come with you?"

"No, you have work tomorrow. Besides, you just had a beer."

"I had _one _beer."

"Still."

"Okay. Drive safe."

Dess jogged out to the truck and pulled out of the driveway. When she made it to the highway, she sighed in relief.

Freedom.

Her thumb drive was safely tucked away in her binder in her room. She had packed her backpack with her metal toys earlier and placed it in the truck, along with her bike. Her family thought she was going to search for her thumb drive, but she was actually going to search for midnighters during the hour. It was 11:00 PM now, and she could get to the reservation well before the blue time.

Dess eventually parked her truck in an empty lot. As she waited, she pulled out her GPS and took note of her location.

She smiled when the blue light enveloped the world. The dome light did not come on when she opened the door and slid out of the truck, and the sound of the door being closed was muffled. Within a couple minutes she was peddling down the streets of La Push, calling for anyone who might be awake.

The moon was at its zenith when Dess heard what she had been listening for.

"Hey! Wait!" Dess stopped her bike and looked back. A boy was sprinting after her. When he was close enough to see her face, he stopped.

"Are you a spirit?" he asked uncertainly.

"A what?"

"A spirit. My tribe has stories of spirit warriors, and this blueness isn't normal. Am I spirit walking?"

Dess stared at him a moment. Then she grinned.

"No, you're not spirit walking. Do you live nearby?"

"Yeah, a few houses back that way. Why?"

"You want to know what this is, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Then let's go."

* * *

The boy led her back to his house. He seemed to be several years younger than her.

"I'm Dess," she introduced herself.

"Seth. Seth Clearwater."

"Well, Seth. How long have you been having this dream?"

"About a year and a half, now. It that what this is? A dream?"

"Not exactly, though it is very dream-like. This story begins thousands of years ago, when humanity still had to fear other apex predators."

Seth sat in the chair opposite to her at the table. Suddenly, he spoke.

"Dess….. isn't that the name of one of Chief Swan's daughters? He hangs out with my dad, and I think he's mentioned his daughters a few times."

"Yep," Dess agreed. "See, not a spirit. Before we go any farther, have you met anyone else in the blue time?"

"No, I haven't. When I felt safe enough to leave the house, I went searching to see if I could find anyone else." He seemed embarrassed to reveal that he had felt unsafe. "All the other people. They're stiff and unmoving during this time."

"That's normal," Dess reassured him. "We'll get to that."

"Okay. So if this isn't a dream, what is it?"

"Up until 10,000 years ago, there were actually 25 hours in a day. Humans shared the planet with another race of intelligent predators. We call them darklings, and they have less intelligent cousins, slithers. When humanity started driving them to extinction like we did to the other megafauna, the darklings collapsed one hour so that it seems to go by in an instant for normal people and things. Only darklings and slithers can experience that hour. Everyone else is frozen. But anyone born within one second of either side of midnight, which is one in every 43,200 people by the way, have access to all 25 hours."

Seth looked confused. "How come no one has seen these darklings?"

"They're frozen during normal time, like the way normal people are frozen during the hour. If sunlight hits the darklings while they're frozen they burn, so they hide underground or in caves at the end of the hour. Speaking of which…" Dess glanced at her wind-up watch. "We've got about ten minutes. Here."

She grabbed her bag and rummaged through it. She grabbed a small, palm-sized box and stood up.

"Which room's yours?"

"The one at the end of the hall. Why?"

"Darklings and slithers still think, wrongly of course, that they're above us in the food chain. Now that I'm here to train you, you've become a threat to them. There are ways to protect yourself, but we'll get to that some other time. Are you free tomorrow after school?"

As Dess spoke, she walked through the open doorway and over to the room's lone window. She opened her box of sewing pins and stuck them one at a time into the wood of the window frame, whispering a tridecalogism for each pin.

"No, I have soccer practice every day after school. When I get back my mom makes me do my homework right away."

Dess sighed. Parents. "Well, we'll just have to continue this conversation tomorrow night. Oh, and if anyone asks, I was in La Push tonight because I lost my thumb drive at the beach. And you met me on the beach today."

Seth nodded. "Can I get your phone number?" he blushed and added, "You know, just in case we need to contact each other."

"Alright, give me yours, too," Dess said as she ignored his behavior. "See you later."

"Bye."

The world jumped into motion when Dess was halfway down the street. A few raindrops fell from the sky as she peddled back towards her truck. Thankfully it wasn't raining hard enough to get soaked, so Dess didn't have to endure a wet drive home.

Charlie was waiting for her when she pulled in the driveway.

"You were gone for almost two hours. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it was just hard to find the right rock in the dark, since I've only been there once."

"Well, I home you get a good grade on that project, since it caused you so much trouble. 'Night."

"Goodnight."


End file.
